Road planing machines



May 29, 1956 F. c. WEST 2,747,475

ROAD PLANING MACHINES Filed Deo. 3, 1951 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 -s'v AttorneysMay 29, 1956 F. c. WEST ROAD PLANING MACHINES 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 FiledDec. 3, 1951 Inventor 9 du@ Jhr By Mmmvm. Je Attorney;

May 29, 1956 F. c. WEST 2,747,475

ROAD PLANING MACHINES Filed DeG. 3, 1951 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 United StatesPatent O RAD PLANING MACHINES Frederick Charles West, Emmer Green,Reading, England Application December 3, 1951, Serial No. 259,517

Claims priority, application Great Britain December 4, 1950 Thisinvention relates to heating and planing machines for the levelling ofroads having a bituminous or hke surface.

Such machines scrape or cut from the surface of a road the materialwhich has been softened by the application of heat. Much of the removedmaterial is t for re-use or can be made fit for re-use but little hasbeen done in this connection because of difhculties in handling theremoved material. The commonest method of collecting the material is toallow it to gather in the form of a windrow as a result of the forwardmovement of the machine and subsequently to lift it by shovelling. Tomake the material iit for re-use, it has, generally, to be re-heated;but bitumen ages, and with the passage of time, can become oxydized andpolymerised to such an extent that mere re-heating will not cause it toregain a satisfactory degree of plasticity. Also, the somewhat intenseheating to which it is subjected to enable it to be removed from theroad surface by the planing tools has the effect of driving ol valuablevolatlle constituents and the volatilisation goes on while the materialis cooling down after having been planed off. Generally, the removedmaterial needs to have added to it a quantity of fresh bituminous binderin the form of an emulsion or linx and this necessarily involves heatingthe collected material to a fairly high temperature.

So far, it has not been found satisfactory to regenerate the removedmaterial except in a special plant to which the material has to betransported.

According to the invention, a heating and planing machine is providedwith a mixer into which the planed-oli material is gathered and in whichit is treated with a fluxing oil and with an elevator which picks up theregenerated material and discharges it into a storage receptacle.

The mixer is preferably arranged as near as possible to the point atwhich the material is planed off the road so that the material receivesthe llux while it is at the highest possible temperature.

The invention has been particularly satisfactorily used in connectionwith a planing machine in which the planing tools are carried by a rotorhaving a vertical axis of rotation. Such a machine modied in accordancewith the invention will now be described by way of example withreference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic side elevation of the machine.

Fig. 2 is a plan of Fig. l.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of part of Fig. 1 and Fig. 4 is a sideelevation of Fig. 3.

The machine comprises a chassis supported fore and aft by two pairs ofroad wheels, 12, 14. Depending from the chassis between the two pairs ofroad wheels is a rotor 16 of large diameter arranged to rotate about avertical axis and having chisel-like planing tools 18 depending from itsrim. The rotor is driven (through gearing not shown) by an engine 2t)carried by the chassis and is arranged so that it can be adjusted up anddown by means of a handwheel 22 to bring the tools 18 further from ornearer to y 2,747,475 Patented May 29, 1956 the road surface. At theforward end, the chassis is profvided with a jib 24 which carries a cowl26 which can be raised from and lowered towards the road surface bymeans of a hand-wheel 28 at the rear end of the jib. Within the cowlsare arranged a number of burners 30 which project their llames onto theroad surface.

I'he arrangement so far described is known in itself and as it does notform an essential part of this invention, it need not be described ingreater detail.

As the chassis is driven forward, the road surface is heated andsoftened by the burners 30 and is then planed by the tools 18 carried bythe rotor 16.

The material planed off by the tools is gathered int a single centralwindrow by oblique blades 34 depending from the chassis to the rear ofthe rotor. The blades 34 are adjustable towards and away from the roadsurface by hand-wheels 36.

Immediately beyond the rear end of the gathering blades 34, a mixer 38is suspended from the chassis.

The mixer (see particularly Figs. 3 and 4) is in the form of a trough 49supported at its rear end on a shaft 42 carried in bearings in arms 44depending from the chassis 10. The front end of the trough is supportedon the rear ends of the blades 34 through screws 46 which pass throughanges 43 on the trough and rest on flanges 50 on the blades 34. Thetrough is thus angularly adjustable about the shaft 42 by adjustment ofthe height of the rear ends of the blades 34 and also, independently ofthe blades, by means of the screws 46. By such adjustment, the lowerforward edge 52 of the trough can be brought to any desired height abovethe ground so that the trough can act as a scoop which receives theplaned-olf material which has been gathered by the blades 34.

In the side walls of the trough 40 are journalled a pair of shafts 54,55 to which are keyed two sets of paddle wheels 56, 57. The shaft 55 isconnected to the shaft 42 by bevel gearing 58 and the two shafts 54, 55are connected together by a chain and sprocket drive 60. 'I'he shaft 42is arranged so as to be driven by a chain and sprocket drive 62 from anintermediate shaft 64 itself driven through a belt drive 66 by an engine68 on the chassis 10.

The paddle wheels are driven in the direction of the arrows shown inFig. 3. The paddles 70 are shaped (as shown) so that they will bite intothe mass of planed-off material presented to them and drive itbackwards.

Above the trough 4@ is arranged a pipe '72 having an outlet nozzle 74directed into the trough and connected to a pump 76 on an oil tank '78carried by the chassis. The shaft 42 also carries an elevator jib 80which is tied to the chassis 19 by ties 32. The elevator jib has a atbase plate 84 which supports lifting angles 86 attached at their ends toa chain 88 passing over sprockets 90 on the shaft 42 and sprockets 92 atthe upper end of the jib. The sprockets 92 are driven from the shaft 42by a chain and sprocket drive 94.

As can be seen in Fig. 4, the angles 86 are shaped so that as they arecarried round the sprockets 90, they will scoop up material lying in therear end of the trough 40 and carry it upwards over the plate 84.

At the rear end, the chassis 10 has a towing attachment 96 allowing atrailer 98 to be towed so as to be always in a position to receive thematerial discharged from the upper end of the elevator.

The machine is operated as follows:

The burners 3l? in the cowl 26 having been lit, the machine is drivenslowly over the road Surface to be planed, the surface thus beingsoftened. The height of the rotor 16 is adjusted so that as the machineadvances and the rotor rotates, the tools 18 plane oft high spots in theroad surface. The material thus planed olf is gathered by the blades 34and presented as a heap indicated by the ice line 100 in Fig. 4 to -theforward end of the trough 40.

yThe paddles of theA paddle wheel 56 bite into the heap 100' and urgethe material backwards in the trough into the rangexof action of thepaddle wheel 57. f

Fluxing oil is delivered-into the trough .40 through the pipe 72 and Visthoroughly mixed with the planed-off material, thus regenerating it andrendering it t for re-use.

In the condition in which the material is received by the trough 40, itis not tit for re-use without further treatment. Also, it is in acondition in .which it is not easy to handle. Hitherto, -ithas been thepractice to leave it on the road surface until it has cooled and then toshovel it up and send it to a regenerating plant.

By treating the material with a luxing oil in the trough 40 as is vdonein accordance with the invention, several important advantages areobtained. In the first place, the regeneration is effected while thematerial is still hot and a substantial economy is thus obtained.Secondly, a supply of regenerated material is made available forimmediate re-use if required. Thirdly, and this is most important, thematerial is brought to a condition in which it can be readily dealt withby the elevator. When, therefore, the material is brought by the paddlewheels Vinto the range of action of the angles 86 on the elevatorchains, it is taken upwards and discharged over the top end of the jib80, into the trailer 93 evenly and without objectionable sticking. Y

The rate of supply of the fluxing oil must, of course, be suited to thenature of the material removed from the road surface, the rate at whichthe material. is removed and the temperature of the material. Ifdesired, the mixing trough 4t) can be provided with heating means of thesame character as those used for heating the road surface but, ingeneral, no such means are required. Means may also be provided forheating the fluxing oil beforesupplying it to the trough.

Although the invention has been described in connection with a planingmachine in which the tools are carried by a single large rotor, :it willbe understood that it can be applied to all forms of planing machinessuch, for example, as machines having a number of horizontal 'otors ormachines in which the planing is effected by horizontal reciprocation ofcutting tools. the machine shown and described carries a heater, theroad surface may, if desired be heated by a heater forming a unitindependent of the planer.

Also, although I claim:

In a road machine, a wheeled chassis having a front end anda rear end, aheating hood supported adjacent the front end of the chassis fordirecting heat against a worn bituminous road surface, a planing devicedepending from the chassis rearwardly of the heating hood for planingthe heated bituminous surface, a trough depending from the chassis andarranged transversely thereof and Vhaving an open front end to receivethe planed o material while the material is still hot, a pair of bladesdepending from the chassis and extending between the planing device andthe trough, said blades converging rearwardly to the trough Vto directthe heated material into the trough as soon as it is planed olf andwhile it is still hot, a pipe overlying the trough and having downwardlydirected outlet means for directing fluxing oil onto the heatedbituminous material in the trough, a plurality of mixing paddlesrotatably mounted in the trough, means mounting the paddles for rotationabout an axis transverse to the Vlongitudinalraxis of the chassis, meansfor rotating the paddles tomix the fluxing oil with the heated materialand thereby regenerate the material and render it Vfit for reuse, atransverse pivot support for the rear end of the tough connected to thechassis and about which the trough'is vertically adjustable, said frontend of the troughf being vcarried by the blades, means verticallyadjustingtheblades, an elevator extendingv rearwardly and upwardly fromthe trough and having a lower end posi-y tioned Vwithin the troughto'receivey the material, as it is forced in being mixed with theiluxing oil rearwardly in the trough, and to remove the regeneratedmaterial from the trough.

References Cited in the tile of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,062,113 Popkess May 20, 1913 1,812,771 Blood et al. June 30, 19311,952,452 Monroe Mar. 27, 1934 2,015,707- Cadwell et al Oct. l, 19352,069,376 Madsen Feb. 2, 1937 2,159,509 Mosel May 23, 1939 2,195,221Millikin Mar. l26, 1940 2,397,782 Flynn Apr. 2, 1946

